Immunogenic sequences

ABSTRACT

The application relates to nucleic acids which encode enzymes responsible for the production of the O-antigen of  Francisella tularensis , and their use as or in the production of vaccines and in diagnosis.

The present invention relates to nucleic acid sequences, in particular genes that encode the enzymes which produce the O-antigen of Francisella tularensis, and their use as or in the production of vaccines and in diagnosis.

Francisella tularensis is a small Gram-negative coccobacillus, which causes the zoonotic disease Tularemia. According to Bergey's manual of systematic bacteriology the genus Francisella contains two species: F. tularensis and Francisella novicida. However, recently several workers have suggested that F. novicida be considered a subspecies of F. tularensis (Hollis D G, et al., J. Clin. Micro. 27: 1601-1608). The closely related bacterium Yersinia philomiragia is now also considered a member of the genus Francisella, due to its high degree of relatedness at the DNA level. There are several proposed subspecies of F. tularensis other than novicida; these are: subspecies tularensis, subspecies holarctica and subspecies mediaasiatica. The subspecies tularensis and holarctica can be identified on the basis of virulence, citrulline ureidase activity and acid production from glycerol (Olsufjev N G, et al. (1959) J. Hyg. Epidemiol. Microbiol. Immunol. 3: 138-149. Francisella tularensis subspecies mediaasiatica is predominantly found in central asian republics of the former USSR. Strains of this subspecies possess citrulline ureidase activity, and are able to ferment glycerol, but are less virulent than strains of F. tularensis subspecies tularensis in rabbit.

Tularemia is a disease occurring in the northern hemisphere; with cases frequently found in Europe, N. America, Asia, N. Russia and Japan. Rodents are thought to be the main reservoir of the bacteria, with ticks as one of the main vectors.

The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Gram-negative bacteria is the major component of the outer membrane. The molecule is composed of 3 regions, lipid-A, which is embedded in the outer membrane and has a conserved structure between species, and two polysaccharides, the core oligosaccharide which can vary in complexity between species, and the O-antigen which is a very polymorphic structure (Kenne L, et al. (1983) Bacterial Polysaccharides The polysaccharides. Academic Press, pp. 287-362). The LPS molecule is thought to be required by the bacteria for protection against serum killing (Whitfield C, et al, (1997) Mol. Micro. 23: 629-638) and cationic antimicrobial peptides (Groisman E A. (1994). Trends. Microbiol. 2: 444-449).

The structure and immunogenicity of LPS isolated from the less virulent F. tularensis subspecies holarctica strains has been studied to some degree (Dreisbach V C, et al. (2000) Infect. Immun 68: 1988-1996). Animals immunised with this LPS are protected against a subspecies holarctica strain challenge (Fulop M J, et al. (1995). Vaccine 13: 1220-1225), but not a subspecies tularensis strain challenge (Fulop M J, et al. (2001). Vaccine 19: 4465-4472). However, the LPS from a subspecies holarctica strain appears to be less toxic than other Gram-negative LPS and its O-antigen contains rare sugars which are related in structure to those found in Pseudomonas aeruginosa 06 and Shigella dysenteriae type 7.

There are no reports of LPS isolation from the more virulent subspecies tularensis strains.

When LPS structure is studied in other species, it is frequently observed that the only difference in structure between strains is the composition of the O-antigen. Therefore, it would be useful to elucidate the structure of the O-antigen part of the LPS molecule in virulent subspecies in order to provide the basis for diagnostic tests and also to allow it to be produced recombinantly, to avoid handling a pathogenic organism.

However, the genetic basis of O-antigen expression is complex; in most bacteria the genes required for production of a complete O-antigen are located in a cluster on the bacterial chromosome. Therefore identification and isolation of genes responsible for the O-antigen is not straightforward. Furthermore, the identification and isolation of LPS from virulent strains is further complicated because it is difficult to stain using conventional methods.

The applicants have now determined the genetic basis of O-antigen production in F. tularensis subspecies tularensis. Furthermore, they have established the efficacy of LPS from various F. tularensis strains as a vaccine.

According to the present invention there is provided a nucleic acid which encodes a series of enzymes or enzyme fragments which, when expressed together in a cell, are able to produce an immunogenic moiety able to produce an immune response in an animal to which it is administered, which response is protective against Francisella tularensis infection, said nucleic acid encoding at least some of the enzymes of SEQ ID NOS 3-17, or modifications thereof.

The expression “modification” refers to sequences of amino acids, which differ from the base sequence from which they are derived in that one or more amino acids within the sequence are substituted for other amino acids. Amino acid substitutions may be regarded as “conservative” where an amino acid is replaced with a different amino acid with broadly similar properties. Non-conservative substitutions are where amino acids are replaced with amino acids of a different type. Broadly speaking, fewer non-conservative substitutions will be possible without altering the biological activity of the polypeptide. Suitably modifications will be at least 60% identical, preferably at least 75% identical, and more preferably at least 90% identical to the base sequence.

Identity in this instance can be judged for example using the algorithm of Lipman-Pearson, with Ktuple: 2, gap penalty: 4, Gap Length Penalty: 12, standard PAM scoring matrix (Lipman, D. J. and Pearson, W. R., Rapid and Sensitive Protein Similarity Searches, Science, 1985, vol. 227, 1435-1441).

In particular, the invention comprises a nucleic acid which encodes enzymes of SEQ ID NOS 3-17.

A preferred example of such a nucleic acid comprises SEQ ID NO 1 or a variant thereof. In particular the nucleic acid is of SEQ ID NO 1.

The term “variant thereof” in relation to a nucleic acid sequences means any substitution of, variation of, modification of, replacement of, deletion of, or the addition of one or more nucleic acid(s) from or to a polynucleotide sequence providing the resultant protein sequence encoded by the polynucleotide exhibits the similar properties as the protein encoded by the basic sequence. The term therefore includes allelic variants, degenerate variants which encode similar proteins but vary only as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code. It also includes a polynucleotide which substantially hybridises to the polynucleotide sequence of the present invention. Preferably, such hybridisation occurs at, or between low and high stringency conditions. In general terms, low stringency conditions can be defined as 3×SSC at about ambient temperature to about 55° C. and high stringency condition as 0.1×SSC at about 65° C. SSC is the name of the buffer of 0.15M NaCl, 0.015M tri-sodium citrate. 3×SSC is three times as strong as SSC and so on.

Typically, variants have 65% or more of the nucleotides in common with the polynucleotide sequence of the present invention, more typically 70%, preferably 75%, even more preferably 80% or 85% and, especially preferred are 90%, 95%, 98% or 99% or more identity.

Variants may comprise the basic sequence which has been modified to ensure that the codon usage is enhanced or optimised, as would be understood in the art, for a particular organism in which it is required that the sequence is expressed in a desired organism, for example a prokaryotic cell such as E. coli. This may involve modifying the content of particular nucleotides, for instance changing the percentage of G and C present in the sequence, to suit that usually found in genes which are highly expressed in the target organism. In addition, particular variants of SEQ ID NO 1 are synthetic variants, engineered to remove codons rarely found in highly expressed genes from common expression hosts such as E. coli and, at the same time, avoid the introduction of codons rarely found in genes coding for O-antigens. For example, wherever possible the codons for the amino acids arg, leu, ile, gly and pro are changed to CGT or CGC (arg), CTG, CTT or CTC (leu), ATC or ATT (ile), GGT or GGC (gly), and CCG CCA or CCT (pro), thus eliminating rare codons.

When comparing nucleic acid sequences for the purposes of determining the degree of identity, programs such as BESTFIT and GAP (both from Wisconsin Genetics Computer Group (GCG) software package). BESTFIT, for example, compares two sequences and produces an optimal alignment of the most similar segments. GAP enables sequences to be aligned along their whole length and fins the optimal alignment by inserting spaces in either sequence as appropriate. Suitably, in the context of the present invention when discussing identity of nucleic acid sequences, the comparison is made by alignment of the sequences along their whole length.

SEQ ID NO 1 comprises a series of genes which encode a number of enzymes which are shown hereinafter in FIG. 5 and SEQ ID NOs 3-17. Preferably any variants of SEQ ID NO 1 encode enzymes of SEQ ID NOS 3-17 or modifications of these.

The expression “fragment” used in relation to amino acid sequences refers to any portion of the given amino acid sequence which has the same activity as the complete amino acid sequence. Fragments will suitably comprise at least 20 and preferably at least 50 consecutive amino acids from the basic sequence.

The term “fragments” is also used in relation to nucleic acid sequences. Fragments of SEQ ID NO 1 may have applications in diagnostics, and these form a further aspect of the invention. For diagnostic purposes, fragments may be quite short, for example from 5-30 bases, which may be used as primers or probes. Particular characteristic regions of SEQ ID NO 1 from which suitable fragments for diagnostic purposes may be identified are elucidated hereinafter. Fragments which are useful in therapy would generally be expected to be longer, for example from 600-17,000 bases long.

A region of genome of the F. tularensis strain Schu 24 (subspecies tularensis) which includes SEQ ID NO 1, and which is responsible for expression of the set of enzymes necessary for constructing the polysaccharide, has been identified. It is shown hereinafter in FIG. 6 as SEQ ID NO 41. This sequence includes a number of genes including a series of genes that encode the enzymes illustrated in FIG. 5 hereinafter as SEQ ID NOS 3-20. Putative functions were applied to these genes by comparison with known sequences as illustrated in Table 1. TABLE 1 Gene SEQ ID F. tularensis product NO protein size (aa) Putative function 2 Transposase 247 Hypothetical protein Transposase 3 WbtA 578 Sugar epimerase 4 WbtB 205 Galactosyl transferase Glycosyl transferase 5 WbtC 263 UDP-glucose 4-epimerase 6 WbtD 363 Sugar transferase 7 WbtE 436 LPS biosynthesis Dehydrogenase 8 WbtF 323 C 4-epimerase 9 Wzy 409 Membrane protein/O-antigen polymerase 10 WbtG 366 Transferase 11 WbtH 628 Asparagine synthetase 12 WbtI 360 Sugar transaminase/ perosamine synthetase 13 WbtJ 241 Formyl transferase 14 Wzx 495 o-antigen flippase 15 WbtK 286 Glycosyl transferase 16 WbtL 294 Glucose-1-phosphate thymidylyltransferase 17 WbtM 348 dTDP-D-glucose 4,6- dehydratase dTDP-D-glucose 4,6- dehydratase 18 Transposase 126 Transposase 19 ManC 468 Mannose-1-phosphate guanylyltransferase 20 ManB 494 phosphomannomutase

In particular the proteins illustrated as SEQ ID NOS 3-17 are believed to be involved in O-antigen biosynthesis. The O-antigen itself has applications both in diagnostics and as a prophylactic or therapeutic vaccine.

When the nucleic acids of the invention are expressed together in a host cell, they will result in the construction of an antigen that produces an immune response in an animal including a human, which is protective against infection by F. tularensis. Thus they may be used in the production of prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines.

The nucleic acid may be included in a vector such as a live viral vaccine, for instance, adenovirus vector or vaccinia, or in a plasmid to form so-called “naked DNA” vaccines, or preferably in a bacterial vector such as attenuated Salmonella species. In this case, the nucleic acid will be under the control of suitable control elements such as promoters, signal sequences, enhancers and the like, as would be understood in the art. In this case, the nucleic acid is expressed either within the cells of the patient to whom the vaccine is administered, or in the case of bacterial vectors, within the host cell itself. As a result a series of enzymes are produced which are able to construct the protective O-antigen in situ.

The vector is suitably combined with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier in a vaccine formulation. The nature of the carrier depends upon the type of vector being used, as would be understood in the art. In particular, when the vaccine comprises a recombinant Salmonella, it is suitably in the form of a composition which is suitable for oral administration.

Alternatively, the nucleic acid may be included in an expression vector which is used to transform a host cell. Suitable host cells are prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells, but are preferably prokaryotic cells such as E. coli. In particular, the nucleic acid used is a synthetic variant of SEQ ID NO 1, optimised for expression in the particular host cells. The protective O-antigen can then be recovered from these cells after culture thereof.

Thus in a further aspect there is provided a method of preparing a prophylactic or therapeutic vaccine, which method comprises transforming a host cell with a nucleic acid of the invention, culturing said host cell, and recovering a moiety which produces a protective immune response against F. tularensis therefrom.

Expression vectors and host cells for use in this method, together with the product thereof form further aspects of the invention.

Vaccines of this type will suitably be in the form of a pharmaceutical composition, in which the antigen is combined with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, as would be understood in the art.

The compositions of the invention may be in a form suitable for oral use, for administration by inhalation (for example as a finely divided powder or a liquid aerosol), for administration by insufflation (for example as a finely divided powder) or for parenteral administration (for example as a sterile aqueous or oily solution for intravenous, subcutaneous, intramuscular or intramuscular dosing or as a suppository for rectal dosin.

The compositions of the invention may be obtained by conventional procedures using conventional pharmaceutical excipients, well known in the art.

For further information on Formulation the reader is referred to Chapter 25.2 in Volume 5 of Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry (Corwin Hansch; Chairman of Editorial Board), Pergamon Press 1990.

The amount of active ingredient that is combined with one or more excipients to produce a single dosage form will necessarily vary depending upon the host treated and the particular route of administration. For example, a formulation intended for oral administration to humans will generally contain, for example, from 0.5 mg to 2 g of active agent compounded with an appropriate and convenient amount of excipients which may vary from about 5 to about 98 percent by weight of the total composition. Dosage unit forms will generally contain about 1 mg to about 500 mg of an active ingredient. For further information on Routes of Administration and Dosage Regimes the reader is referred to Chapter 25.3 in Volume 5 of Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry (Corwin Hansch; Chairman of Editorial Board), Pergamon Press 1990.

The size of the dose for therapeutic or prophylactic purposes of moiety of the invention will naturally vary according to the age and sex of the animal or patient and the route of administration, according to well known principles of medicine.

Thus in a further aspect the invention provides recombinant O-antigen of F. tularensis which is obtainable from a host cell which expresses proteins of SEQ ID NO 3-17, or modifications thereof.

Furthermore, the applicants' realisation of the sequence of the O-antigen sequence provides the possibility that this sequence can form the basis of diagnostic tests, to determine whether a patient has an F. tularensis infection. In such case, samples such as blood or saliva samples may be taken from the patient and the presence of SEQ ID NO 1 or variants thereof detected.

Specific detection methods are well known in the art, and may include amplification procedures such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or other detection methods using for example labelled probes that hybridise to the target sequence and particularly SEQ ID NO 1. Primers and probes of this kind form a further aspect of the invention.

By selection of particular primers and probes, it may also be possible to allow differentiation between strains of F. tularensis infection. For instance, the applicants have found that primers comprising SEQ ID NOS 21 and 22 and 35 and 36 set out hereinafter will allow distinction between strains of F. tularensis subspecies tularensis, and F. tularensis subspecies holarctica as described below. In the former case, this possibility arises because of differences in the downstream sequence, and in the latter, because of differences in deletions in the flanking transposase sequence. Consequently, analysis using primers or probes based upon these regions may be used to determine whether any particular strain is F. tularensis subspecies tularensis or otherwise.

In order to discover whether the LPS from a subspecies tularensis strain has similar structure (and properties) to that from a subspecies holarctica strain, LPS from F. tularensis strain Schu S4 (subspecies tularensis) was extracted.

LPS extracted from F. tularensis strain Schu S4 was shown to have a characteristic ladder pattern after gel electrophoresis. However, the LPS was difficult to stain and required additional oxidation in order to visualise the O-antigen bands. This may suggest that the sugars in the O-antigen of F. tularensis strain Schu S4 are not oxidised in the same way as the O-antigen sugars found in most other bacteria.

The F. tularensis strain Schu S4 O-antigen gene cluster contained 15 genes, the putative functions of which was assigned (see Table 1 above) based on the BLAST results and structural information about the sugars contained in the O-antigen. Genes within the cluster are likely to be responsible for the production of the O-antigen molecule as well as the transportation of the molecule out of the bacterial cell.

There are two main O-antigen synthesis modes, O-antigen polymerase (wzy)-dependent and wzy-independent. In the wzy-dependent system it is thought that the polymerase (wzy), flippase (wzx) and chain length determinant (wzz) are part of a complex in the cell wall which facilitates polymerisation and export of the LPS molecule. In the wzy-independent system a different set of proteins are involved in the transportation and polymerisation of the LPS molecule. The transporter is ATP driven and composed of two proteins wzt and wzm that belong to the ABC-transporter family.

In the F. tularensis O-antigen gene cluster, proteins with high identity to wzy and wzx are present, suggesting that transportation and polymerisation of the O-antigen is via a wzy-dependent pathway.

The TMHMM analyses of the putative O-antigen flippase (Wzx) and polymerase (Wzy) proteins supported their assigned functions based on sequence similarity. The predicted numbers of trans-membrane helices for the F. tularensis proteins of 14 and 11 for Wzx and Wzy respectively are similar to those predicted for other bacteria, in which these cytoplasmic membrane proteins have been predicted to have around 10-12 trans-membrane helices. The prediction of 2 large periplasmic domains for the F. tularensis Wzy protein is consistent with the two large periplasmic domains of the Shigella flexneri Wzy protein.

No gene that could encode a Wzz homologue was identified, which may indicate that one is not present in the F. tularensis genome.

The close proximity or overlapping of the genes wbtA to wbtL suggests these are transcribed as one operon.

Approximately 0.5 Kb downstream is wbtM, which has a putative promoter of its own. Downstream of the second transposase are manC and manB, which also have their own putative promoter and are probably not involved in biosynthesis of the O-antigen as mannose was not found to be part of the structure of the F. tularensis O-antigen, nor is it one of the intermediate products required for its synthesis.

The two genes manC and manB may once have been involved in biosynthesis of the O-antigen in an ancestor of F. tularensis. The presence of transposases flanking the O-antigen biosynthetic gene cluster wbtA to wbtM suggests this cluster may have been horizontally acquired, perhaps replacing an ancestral polysaccharide gene cluster.

The O-antigen gene cluster appears to be present in all subspecies tularensis and B strains screened. However, there is at least one difference between the clusters in subspecies tularensis and B strains within a region containing a transposase. BLAST analysis using the partially deleted transposase has revealed possibly over 50 copies of it in the F. tularensis Schu S4 genome. It is possible that the insertion sequence originated in the F. tularensis genome from S. pneumonia and was copied randomly within the genome. The open reading frames flanking the insertion sequence have no significant homology within the F. tularensis genome, suggesting that these genes were not imported to this locus with the insertion.

In subspecies tularensis strains, this insertion has become deleted to leave only fragments of the transposase and downstream sequence. The overall similarity between the subspecies tularensis and subspecies holarctica clusters seems to indicate that the insertions took place in F. tularensis before division of the subspecies. Partial deletion of the subspecies tularensis transposase would have the effect of stabilising this region of DNA, as this enzyme has been found to be necessary for insertion events to take place.

It seems unlikely that this will affect expression of the cluster in either subspecies tularensis or B strains. It could be that in subspecies tularensis strains part of the transposase has been lost due to genome down sizing. However, the gross difference in size of PCR products generated across this region when amplifying DNA from different subspecies may be utilised in diagnostic procedures.

The applicants have found that a similar O-antigen gene cluster to that found in F. tularensis strain Schu S4 is present in other strains of F. tularensis. This includes subspecies holarctica strains. Consequently, a vaccine which utilises the O-antigen to produce a protective immune response is likely to provide protection against infection by several virulent strains of F. tularensis.

The applicants have demonstrated that LPS from F. tularensis subspecies tularensis strains is protective. In particular, it appears to be protective against challenge from strains other than F. tularensis subspecies tularensis, and in particular against challenge with F. tularensis subspecies holartica. This finding is unexpected in view of the results reported above which suggest that LPS from F. tularensis subspecies holartica is not protective against infection by other F. tularensis species. Thus recombinant vaccines as described above will be particularly useful.

Thus in a further aspect, the invention provides LPS obtainable from F. tularensis subspecies tularensis for use as a vaccine against infection by F. tularensis. Vaccine compositions containing LPS from F. tularensis subspecies tularensis are also novel and form a further aspect of the invention. These will comprise pharmaceutically acceptable carriers as described above.

The invention will now be particularly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:

FIG. 1. SDS-PAGE analysis of LPS isolated from E. coli strain K325, 1.25 μg (track 1) and F. tularensis strain Schu S4, 50 μg (track 2).

FIG. 2. The genetic organisation of the O-antigen gene cluster in F. tularensis strain Schu S4. The G+C content of the O-antigen cluster is shown in the upper panel.

FIG. 3. Schematic structure of an O-antigen subunit of F. tularensis strain Schu S4 and the assignment of putative functions to the O-antigen gene cluster genes. A single O-unit is shown with sugar residues and glycosidic linkages indicated.

FIG. 4. Shows the region of the genome the nucleic acid sequence of the F. tularensis genome which encodes all the proteins shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 5. Shows the amino acid sequences of proteins encoded by SEQ ID NO 1, as well as a number of flanking gene sequences,

FIG. 6. Shows the nucleic acid sequence (SEQ ID NO 1) which encodes the enzymes necessary for O-antigen production.

EXAMPLE 1

Methods

Bacterial Strains and Growth Conditions

Bacterial strains used in this study are shown in Table 2 and were cultured at 37° C. on BCGA agar for 48 hrs. TABLE 2 Species and Strain Subspecies F. tularensis Schu4 tularensis F. tularensis 199 tularensis F. tularensis 230 tularensis F. tularensis 041 tularensis F. tularensis LVS holarctica F. tularensis 200 holarctica F. tularensis 025 holarctica F. tularensis 075 holarctica F. tularensis HN63 holarctica F. tularensis 147 mediaasiatica LPS Purification

LPS was purified from F. tularensis strain Schu S4 using a hot-phenol and water extraction method (Westphal O, et al. (1965). Methods in Carbohydrate Chemistry 5: 83-91).

Gel Electrophoresis and Silver Staining

Glycine gel electrophoresis was performed according to the method of Laemmli (Laemmli U K. (1970). Nature 227: 680-685.) using a 12.5% separating gel with a 4.5% stacking gel. Ten μl of each sample were electrophoresed for approx 2 h at 100 mV in the Mini-protean II slab system (Biorad).

Gels were silver stained according to the method of Chart (Chart H. (1994) LPS: Isolation and Characterisation. In: Raton B, Arbor A (eds.) Methods in Practical Laboratory Bacteriology. CRC Press, London, Tokyo, pp. 11-20). However, the oxidation step was increased to 10 min.

Nucleotide Sequence Analysis

The sequence encoding the O-antigen biosynthetic cluster was identified and extracted from the Known protein sequences (obtained from GenBank) involved in the biosynthesis of the O-antigen of other bacteria were used to probe the F. tularensis Schu S4 partial genome sequence (Prior R G, et al. (2001) Journal of applied microbiology 91: 614-620), available at http://artedi.ebc.uu.se/Projects/Francisella/, using TBLASTN (Altschul S F. et al. (1997) Nucleic acids research 25: 3389-3402). The contig containing the putative O-antigen gene cluster was extracted and subsequently analysed using the annotation tool Artemis (http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Software/Artemis). This allowed visualization of BLASTN, BLASTX and BLASTP searches, GC content and other analyses performed on the sequence and the predicted proteins.

The protein sequences encoded by the putative O-antigen flippase gene (wzx) and O-antigen polymerase gene (wzy) were analysed for trans-membrane helices using TMHMM (Sonnhammer E L L, et al. (1998) In: Glasgow J, Littlejohn T, et al. (eds.) The sixth international conference on intelligent systems for molecular biology. AAAI Press, Menlo Park, Calif., pp. 175-182).

PCR Analysis of the Putative O-Antigen Gene Cluster

DNA was prepared from the F. tularensis strains shown in table 1, by phenol extraction, as described by Karlsson et al 2000 (Microb. Comp. Genom. 5: 25-39). Ten pairs of overlapping PCR primers were designed to amplify the whole of the putative O-antigen gene cluster in approximate 2 kilobase segments using the DNAstar program PrimerSelect. The primers were designed with annealing temperatures ranging from 42 to 59° C., although all were used successfully at 49° C.

The structures of these primer pairs is summarised in Table 3. TABLE 3 Primer Forward/ SEQ ID set reverse Structure NO 1 Forward ATAATGAAATCAATCCACGAG 21 Reverse CCAGCCAGTCAGTCCCACAG 22 2 Forward TGTCTTAGATATGGGGCAACC 23 Reverse ACAAATATCAAATCCTAACACATC 24 3 Forward TAGAAGCAGCTGCGATAGGTAGAC 25 Reverse TTAAATAAAAACTGAGGAAACA 26 4 Forward ATGGTATTTTAATCAAGTGT 27 Reverse CTAGTATGCCCCAGAGT 28 5 Forward TGGTGCGACAATCAAGTTA 29 Reverse AGAAGTTCCTCCTCAGTC 30 6 Forward AGAAATTAAGAGCAAAAGGAAAGT 31 Reverse ATCTCAAAGTCAAAATCAGTCTCT 32 7 Forward TACGATATTGTCCTCTCCGATTAG 33 Reverse TAGTTGCGACATATTGACCTG 34 8 Forward AGGCAGGTCAATATGTCGCAACT 35 Reverse TTTCCGCAACACTTCAGCAACTT 36 9 Forward GCTATGGCCACTATCACGAGAGG 37 Reverse TATACTTGCTTGCCCACTGCTTAG 38 10 Forward ACCGTAGTGAGCATTGGATTGT 39 Reverse ACTAGGGCCTCTGACCGTTCTC 40

PCR amplification using each pair of primers with each template DNA was carried out in the following mixture: 1×PCR buffer (including 1.5 mM MgCl₂), 0.2 mM deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs), 2.5 mM forward primer, 2.5 mM reverse primer, 2.0 μl template DNA, 0.5 U Taq polymerase and filtered sterile water to a final volume of 20 μl. The reaction mixtures were incubated at 90° C. for 1 min and then cycled at 90° C. for 1 min, 49° C. for 1 min and 72° C. for 2 min 25 s for 30 cycles, with a final incubation at 72° C. for 10 min. PCR products were visualised on 0.5% agarose gels, with ethidium bromide staining. PCR buffer, dNTPs, and polymerase were from Roche. PCR primers were synthesised by MWG-Biotech.

Cloning of PCR Products

PCR products amplified from Schu S4, HN63 and LVS DNA using primer pair 8 were cloned into pGEM-T easy (Promega) for sequence analysis. Ligated DNA was transformed in E. coli JM109 chemically competent cells (Promega) and putative clones were screened using both colony PCR and digestion with restriction endonucleases. All DNA manipulations, including ligations, transformations, colony PCR, restriction endonuclease digestions and agarose gel electrophoresis were carried out according to methods described by Sambrook et al (1987) Molecular cloning: A laboratory manual. Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.).

Purification of PCR products from agarose gel was achieved using the QIAquick Gel Extraction Kit (Qiagen) according to the manufacturer's instructions.

The three constructs were sequenced at Oswel by the dideoxynucleotide chain-termination method (Sanger F, et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 74: 5463-5467) using universal primers. Each sequence was compared and the BLAST (Altschul S F, et al. (1990) Basic local alignment search tool. J. Mol. Biol. 215: 403-410) function of the ARTEMIS software package was used for homology searches in the locally held GenBank databases to identify the functions of the differential regions of DNA.

Mass Spectrometry Analysis of the O-Antigen Molecule

Results

LPS Purification

The hot phenol-water extraction method was used to purify LPS from 2.2 g of freeze dried F. tularensis strain Schu S4. This resulted in 7 mg of LPS, which is a yield of 0.3%. The LPS was difficult to visualise after SDS-PAGE and silver staining. The oxidation step was increased from 5 min to 10 min to visualise a ladder pattern (FIG. 1).

F. tularensis O-Antigen Biosynthetic Gene Cluster

The F. tularensis O-antigen biosynthetic gene cluster was found to be 17 Kb in length and contain 15 genes putatively identified as being involved in O-antigen biosynthesis, flanked by two transposases (FIG. 2). Possible promoter sites were identified just upstream of the genes wbtA and wbtM. Downstream of the second transposase are located the genes manC and manB, with a possible promoter just upstream of manC.

FIG. 2 also shows the G+C content plot of the cluster using a window size of 500 bases. The overall G+C content of this region of the genome at 31.27% is slightly lower than the genome average of approximately 33%. The plot shows that the central section of the cluster, from wzy to wbtK, generally has an even lower G+C content.

Downstream from manC, on the opposite strand, are located the genes for the transcription termination factor rho and thioredoxin. In E. coli both of these genes are also found flanking one end of a polysaccharide biosynthetic gene cluster—that of the enterobacterial common antigen.

The O-antigen repeat unit of F. tularensis is shown in FIG. 3, together with the putative role of the genes involved in O-antigen biosynthesis. Based on their homology to other LPS and sugar biosynthetic genes, in particular P. aeruginosa serotype O6 which expresses a similar O-antigen repeat structure (Knirel Y A, et al. (1985) Eur. J. Biochem. 150: 541-550), the putative role of the gene products have been assigned.

It is proposed that the biosynthesis of 2-acetamido-2,6-dideoxy-D-glucose (QuiNAc) involves WbtA, a dehydratase and WbtC, which shows homology to UDP-Glc 4-epimerases. WbtA and wbtC share homology to WbpM and WbpV of P. aeruginosa strain O6, both thought to be involved in QuiNAc biosynthesis and shown to be essential for O6 O-antigen synthesis. WbtE, WbtF and WbtH are proposed to be involved in 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galactouronamide (GalNAcAN) biosynthesis. WbtF shows homology to UDP-glucose 4-epimerases, including WbpP and VipB, whilst WbtE shows homology to WbpO and VipA, UDP-GalNAc dehydrogenases involved in the formation of 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galactouronic acid (GalNAcA) in P. aeruginosa and Salmonella enterica var typhi respectively. WbtH produces significant alignments with glutamine amidotransferases, including WbpS of P. aeruginosa serotype O6, which may putatively be involved in the formation of the GalNAcAN amido group. Biosynthesis of the fourth sugar, 4N-formyl-quinovosamine (Qui4NFm) most likely involves WbtI, WbtJ, WbtL and WbtM. Sequence homology suggests that WbtL may be involved in the formation of the activated sugar dTDP-D-Glucose with WbtM functioning as a dTDP-D-Glucose 4,6-dehydratase. WbtI is proposed to be involved in Qui4NFm amination since it shows homology to RfbE, a perosamine synthetase. Finally, WbtJ is likely to be responsible for the addition of the N-formyl moiety, showing significant homology to formyltransferases.

Specific glycosyltransferases are required to form the oligosaccharide units of the O-antigen repeat. Four glycosyltransferases would be necessary for the synthesis of each O-antigen unit in F. tularensis. Based on homology, WbtB is proposed to mediate the addition of QuiNAc to undecaprenyl phosphate (Und-P) to initiate O-antigen biosynthesis. WbtD and WbtG are probable GalNAcAN transferases, possibly involved in the addition of the two consecutive GalNAcAN residues onto the O-antigen unit. WbtD shares homology to WbpU of P. aeruginosa strain O6, proposed to transfer 2-formamido-2-deoxy-D-galactouronamide (GalNFmAN) onto QuiNAc (Belanger M, et al. (1999). Microbiology 145: 3505-3521). WbtG is homologous to WbpT of P. aeruginosa, thought to be involved in addition of GalNAcA to GalNFmAN. WbtK is probably the fourth glycosyltransferase, which adds 4,6-dideoxy-4-formamido-D-glucose (QuiNA4Fm) to complete the tetrasaccharide O unit.

Wzx and Wzy

Once assembled, the O-antigen repeat units are translocated to the periplasmic face of the inner membrane via Wzx, a transporter/flippase. Wzy then acts as an O-antigen repeat unit polymerase. When analysed using TMHMM, the F. tularensis Wzx protein had a predicted 14 trans-membrane helices, with both termini on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane. The F. tularensis Wzy protein had a predicted 11 trans-membrane helices, with the amino terminus predicted to be on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane, and the carboxy terminus on the periplasmic side. Additionally, the Wzy protein was predicted to have two large periplasmic domains from amino acids 142-178 and 268-327.

A gene with homology to the O-antigen chain length determinant (wzz) was not identified in the current F. tularensis Schu S4 sequence dataset.

PCR Analysis of the O-Antigen Gene Cluster

Eight of the PCR products (primer sets 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10) from each template DNA appeared to be the same size when viewed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Primer pair 1, covering the start of the gene cluster, had to be designed to amplify a 4.8 Kb region due to lack of suitable priming sites upstream of the cluster because of the presence of an insertion element found many times in the F. tularensis Schu S4 genome. This primer pair 1 produced the relevant size product for F. tularensis Schu S4, but when used on subspecies holarctica, strain LVS, did not produce a product. Thus this primer pair may have particular applications in diagnostics where distinction between F. tularensis subspecies tularensis and F. tularensis subspecies holarctica is required. Where samples containing DNA from the former is present, a PCR using primer pair 1 will generate a product, which would not be present in the second case.

The PCR using primer pair 8 revealed a difference in size between subspecies tularensis strains and subspecies holarctica and subspecies mediaasiatica. Subspecies tularensis strains show a deletion of 303 nucleotides when compared to subspecies holarctica strains (including LVS) and subspecies mediaasiatica. Cloning and sequence analysis of this region from the subspecies tularensis strain Schu S4, the subspecies holarctica strain HN63 and LVS has shown that the deletion in Schu S4 occurs at the beginning of a putative transposase that is similar to IS630-spn 1 transposase ORF 1 of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Thus primer pair 8 may also be particularly useful in distinguishing between strains of F. tularenis. Following a PCR reaction on samples containing DNA using these primers, a separation of the products on the basis of size, for example on a gel, should reveal distinguishable differences therebetween.

EXAMPLE 2

Protective Effects

LPS Purification

LPS was purified from F. tularensis strain Schu S4 or from strain LVS using a hot-phenol and water extraction method mentioned above in Example 1.

Immunization with LPS and Protection Studies

The ability of F. tularensis strain LVS or strain Schu S4 LPS to protect BALB/c mice from a F. tularensis was determined by immunizing groups of six female BALB/c mice by the i.p. route with the purified LPS obtained. On each dosing occasion, mice were given 50 μg of LPS in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). The mice received three immunizations, each 7 days apart.

Mice were challenged i.p. with F. tularensis LVS (1×10⁵ CFU) 21 days after the last immunization. All control animals died after challenge. Mice which had been immunised LPS isolated from the LVS strain were protected from death. Mice which had been immunised with LPS from either the SchuS4 or LVS strain showed and extended time to death. At a challenge dose of 10 cfu animals immunised with SchS4 LPS survived for an average of 64 hours (with 99% confidence) longer than the unimmunised controls. 

1. A nucleic acid which encodes a series of enzymes or enzyme fragments which, when expressed together in a cell, are able to produce an immunogenic moiety able to produce an immune response in an animal to which it is administered, which response is protective against Francisella tularensis infection, the nucleic acid encoding at least one enzyme encoded by SEQ ID NOS 3-17 or modifications thereof.
 2. The nucleic acid of claim 1 which encodes the enzymes encoded by SEQ ID NOS 3-17.
 3. The nucleic acid of claim 1 which comprises SEQ ID NO 1 or a variant thereof.
 4. The nucleic acid of claim 3 having the sequence of SEQ ID NO
 1. 5. The nucleic acid of claim 1 wherein the nucleic acid comprises codons that have been optimised for expression in a bacterial cell.
 6. The nucleic acid of claim 5 wherein the bacterial cell is E. coli.
 7. A nucleic acid molecule comprising a fragment of SEQ ID NO 1 which may be used to detect the presence of SEQ ID NO 1 in a sample.
 8. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 7 which comprises an amplification primer.
 9. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 8 which is selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO 21, 22, 35 or
 36. 10. A live vaccine vector comprising a nucleic acid molecule that encodes an enzyme or enzyme fragment that when expressed in a cell, is able to produce an immunogenic moiety able to produce an immune response in an animal to which it is administered, wherein the immune response is protective against Francisella tularensis infection and the nucleic acid molecule encodes an enzyme encoded by SEQ ID NOS 3-17 or modifications thereof.
 11. The live vaccine vector of claim 10 which comprises a bacterial vector.
 12. The live vaccine vector of claim 11 wherein the bacteria is a Salmonella species.
 13. A vaccine comprising the live vaccine vector of claim 10 in combination with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
 14. A method of preparing a prophylactic or therapeutic vaccine, which method comprises transforming a host cell with the nucleic acid of claim 1, culturing said host cell and recovering a protective immunogenic moiety from the culture.
 15. An expression vector comprising the nucleic acid of claim
 1. 16. A host cell transformed with the vector of claim
 15. 17. A recombinant O-antigen of F. tularensis obtainable by the method of claim
 14. 18. A vaccine comprising the recombinant O-antigen of claim 17 in combination with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
 19. A method of diagnosing infection by F. tularensis, which method comprises detecting in a sample taken from a patient suspected of having an infection the nucleic acid sequence of claim
 7. 20. A method of differentiating between strains of F. tularensis, which method comprises selecting primers or probes which are specific for SEQ ID NO 1, and not for similar sequences in subspecies other than F. tularensis subspecies tularensis, or which produce distinguishable products when used to analyse other species, and conducting an analysis using the primers or probes.
 21. The method of claim 20 wherein the analysis is conducted using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and a pair of primers.
 22. The method of claim 21 wherein the primers are specific for a start region of the nucleic acid molecule of SEQ ID NO
 1. 23. The method of claim 22 wherein the primers are the nucleic acid molecules of SEQ ID NO 21 and SEQ ID NO
 22. 24. The method of claim 23 wherein the primers are specific for the end transposase coding region of SEQ ID NO
 1. 25. The method of claim 24 wherein the primers are the nucleic acid molecules of SEQ ID NO 35 and SEQ ID NO
 36. 26. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) obtainable from F. tularensis subspecies tularensis for use as a vaccine against infection by F. tularensis.
 27. The lipopolysaccharide of claim 26 where the strain of F. tularensis subspecies tularensis is the Schu4 strain.
 28. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the lipopolysaccharide of claim 26 in combination with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. 